BuddyX fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

BuddyX’s website domain (“buddy.io”), was privately registered on July 21st, 2023.

It should be noted that prior to July 2023, BuddyX went by BuddyCorp.

That iteration of the company appears to have collapsed, making BuddyX a reboot.

Further research reveals BuddyX marketing videos citing Mahesh Sharma as founder of the company.

Instead of acknowledging he owns BuddyX, Sharma cites himself as “head of marketing” on LinkedIn.

Despite claiming to have gotten involved in MLM back in 2011, Sharma’s LinkedIn profile doesn’t go into specifics.

Circa 2017 Mahesh was promoting Billionex World, a collapsed MLM crypto Ponzi scheme.

After Billionex World came Digiex, a collapsed staking model Ponzi built around Digix token.

Digiex appears to have collapsed circa 2020. What Sharma has been up to since then is unclear.

On its website, BuddyX claims its “head quarter and operation” is in the UAE.

This tracks with BuddyX citing its location as Dubai on FaceBook:

Due to the proliferation of scams and failure to enforce securities fraud regulation, BehindMLM ranks Dubai as the MLM crime capital of the world.

On FaceBook Mahesh Sharma represents he is based out of Delhi, India. Whether he’s since fled to Dubai is unclear.

BehindMLM’s guidelines for Dubai are:

1. If someone lives in Dubai and approaches you about an MLM opportunity, they’re trying to scam you.
2. If an MLM company is based out of or represents it has ties to Dubai, it’s a scam.

If you want to know specifically how this applies to BuddyX, read on for a full review.

[Continue reading…]

Frequense fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

Frequense’s website domain (“frequense.com”), was registered in June 2023. The private registration was last updated on December 21st, 2023.

In Frequense’s website Terms and Conditions we find the Texas corporate address for LaCore Enterprises.

The only reference to LaCore Enterprises on Frequense’s website is mention of LaCore Payment Technologies:

Further research reveals Barb Pitcock citing herself as CEO of Frequense on social media:

Back in 2021 the Barb Pitcock was CEO of Innov8tive Nutrition, another LaCore Enterprises MLM company.

Barb and husband Dave Pitcock ran Innov8tive Nutrition with Heidi and Ken Whitehair.

Today Innov8tive Nutrition’s website is still up but there’s no ownership or executive information provided.

While Barb cites herself as Frequence’s CEO, Dave Pitcock appears to be involved but for some reason keeps a lower profile.

LaCore Enterprises is owned by Terry LaCore (right).

LaCore Enterprises owns and operates multiple MLM companies, most of which are in the nutritional supplement niche.

Why LaCore Enterprises and Barb Pitcock aren’t cited as respective owner and CEO on Frequense’s website is unclear.

As always, if an MLM company is not openly upfront about who is running or owns it, think long and hard about joining and/or handing over any money. [Continue reading…]

IDAA stands for Independent Digital Assets Alliance.

Within the context of being an MLM company, IDAA is a sprawling mess:

What we’re going to focus on in this review is IDAA Games and GrowthPool.

IDAA Games is an MLM opportunity centered around Alpha GamesCoin token investment. GrowthPool is a separate MLM income opportunity marketed within IDAA.

IDAA Games fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

IDAA Games’ website domain (“idaa.games”), was registered on April 16th, 2020. The private registration was last updated on April 15th, 2023.

GrowthPool also fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

GrowthPool’s website domain (“growthpool.org”), was registered in December 2021. The private registration was last updated on November 9th, 2023.

One name we can attach to IDAA Games is Anton “Toni” Federspiel, who I believe is from Austria.

Federspiel is a top promoter of IDAA Games. He is also a top earner in the collapsed OneCoin Ponzi scheme.

In an October 2023 marketing presentation hosted by Federspiel, a marketing slide cites Alex Suarez as founder and President of GamesCoin Group.

IDAA Games seems to fall under GamesCoin Group, so presumably Suarez owns that too (this is left ambiguous).

Suarez doesn’t appear to have any verifiable MLM history.

On its website, IDAA Games represents ties to the UAE through Independent Digital Assets Alliance LLC.

Independent Digital Assets Alliance LLC is purportedly registered as a shell company in Sharjah. Sharjah is just up the road from Dubai, the notorious MLM crime capital of the world.

As a general precaution, any MLM company representing it is based out of or having ties to the UAE should be avoided.

As opposed to the UAE though, IDAA Games appears to actually be operated from Germany:

As per the IDAA Games invoice above, the company operates as Youre Family GmbH, a German registered company.

Presumably the unassuming name “Youre Family” is being used to fool banks and avoid detection by regulators.

Reflecting being primarily marketed in German, for November 2023 SimilarWeb tracked top sources of traffic to IDAA Games’ website as Austria (33%), Germany (26%), Italy (20%) and Switzerland (7%).

GrowthPool’s public facing homepage is nothing more than an affiliate sign in form. No information is provided.

As always, if an MLM company is not openly upfront about who is running or owns it, think long and hard about joining and/or handing over any money. [Continue reading…]

Seems iX Global top earner Viraj Patil didn’t fancy spending Christmas and New Year’s in Dubai.

Viraj, a wanted fugitive, was arrested after his flight from Dubai landed at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport on Sunday night. [Continue reading…]

The FDA has issued a December 21st advisory against Govvi’s WOW! supplement.

The federal regulator warns consuming WOW! can “lead to cardiovascular problems, including heart attack, shortness of breath and tightening of the chest.” [Continue reading…]

The first iteration of 202020Fund was set up on the domain “202020fund.com”. It lasted a few weeks before collapsing.

I know this because I’d queued 202020Fund up for review in Q3 2023. When it came up, 202020Fund’s original website was gone.

A few months later 202020Fund resurfaced on a new website domain, “202020fund.net”.

• 202020Fund’s original .COM domain was privately registered on August 5th, 2023
• 202020Fund’s reboot .NET domain was privately registered on October 7th, 2023

Despite only existing for a few months, on its website 202020Fund falsely claims to have “over 10 years of experience in the financial world”.

202020Fund fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

In an attempt to appear legitimate, 202020Fund provides shell company details for “20 20 20 Investment Limited”.

20 20 20 Investment Limited was registered in the UK on September 10th, 2023.

An MLM company operating or claiming to operate out of the UK is a red flag.

UK incorporation is dirt cheap and effectively unregulated. On top of that the FCA, the UK’s top financial regulator, do not actively regulate MLM related securities fraud.

As a result the UK is a favored jurisdiction for scammers looking to incorporate, operate and promote fraudulent companies.

For the purpose of MLM due-diligence, incorporation in the UK or registration with the FCA is meaningless.

As of November 2023, SimilarWeb tracked just ~1400 monthly visits to 202020Fund’s website.

202020Fund’s website traffic primarily originates from Suriname (33%), the UK (31%), Trinidad and Tobago (14%) and Canada (13%).

As always, if an MLM company is not openly upfront about who is running or owns it, think long and hard about joining and/or handing over any money. [Continue reading…]

Exby fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

Exby’s website domain (“exby.io”), was registered in September 2022. The private registration was last updated on September 15th, 2023.

Exby’s social media profiles were created around the same time. This means September 15th is on or around the time Exby’s owners took possession of the domain.

Despite only existing for a few months, Exby’s website falsely backdates the company’s foundation to January 2022.

Over on Exby’s official Youtube channel, we find marketing videos featuring fake executives:

Exby’s “Darius Dimitropoulos” is represented by a robo-dubbed AI avatar. Although not always, this is typical of non-native English speaking admins.

As of November 2023, SimilarWeb tracked ~490,000 monthly visits to Exby’s website.

The majority of Exby’s website traffic originates from Russia (15%), Belgium (10%), Indonesia (10%) and the US (6%).

As always, if an MLM company is not openly upfront about who is running or owns it, think long and hard about joining and/or handing over any money. [Continue reading…]

Notorious MLM industry figure David Wood has emerged with a new MLM AI trading grift.

Quantum Club is currently in prelaunch. The newly announced MLM company appears to combine securities fraud, commodities fraud and pyramid recruitment. [Continue reading…]

Seletti AI fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

Seletti AI’s website domain (“seletti.ai”), was privately registered on October 19th, 2023.

Official Seletti AI marketing videos in the website backoffice feature “Lenny” (right), as CEO of the company.

Someone going by “Tarek” is presented as Saletti AI’s “Relations Manager”.

Both Lenny and Tarek have Northern American accents.

Further research reveals Seletti AI’s “Lenny” is Leonard J. Giaquinto.

As per the screenshot above, Giaquinto is a furniture salesman from Kozy Furniture.

Press-releases claim Giaquinto was appointed Kozy Furniture’s “Chairman of the Board of Directors” in early 2021.

Social media profiles suggest Giaquinto is based of Virginia in the US.

As always, if an MLM company is not openly upfront about who is running or owns it, think long and hard about joining and/or handing over any money. [Continue reading…]

Bulgarian authorities have dropped an investigation into Nexo.

Nexo was a non-MLM crypto Ponzi pitching passive returns of up to 10% annually.

Despite not being registered to offer securities in Bulgaria and thus operating illegally, in closing their investigation the Prosecutor’s Office claimed they found [Continue reading…]